Table Games

Introduction to Table Games

The group of casino entertainments that, today, we collectively describe as table games were played long before the advent of the first slot machines in 1897. As a general rule, table games may be thought of as gambling pursuits that involve the use of playing cards, dice or a spinning wheel.  In the online environment, table games simulate their land-based equivalents and offer the illusion of being played on a table, although computer-controlled. The portfolio of table games offered by differing venues varies but a list of those most commonly encountered both online and offline follows...

Baccarat

A card game played by a player and a banker while other players lay bets to cover one of the three possible outcomes.

Blackjack

A card game in which a player must assemble a hand whose numerical value, when summed, is higher than that of the dealer but, does not exceed a total of twenty-one.

Caribbean Stud Poker

A card game for up to seven players who each receive a five-card poker hand and must attempt to beat that of the dealer.

Casino War

This is a popular card game that is derived from a simple children’s game known as war. Players may chose to “go to war” or surrender to the dealer.

Craps

This is a dice game. When played live, one person, named the shooter, will throw the dice and may also bet if he or she chooses. The other players bet on the outcome of the shooter’s rolls. Played online, a single player bets on the outcome of a computer-generated roll.

Let it Ride

Let it Ride is a card game played on a table similar to that used in Blackjack. In front of each player are three circles marked 1, 2 and 3.and into which each player must place an equal bet to begin.

Poker

This is a generic name that describes several card games and their variants. The common goal of each game is to build the best 5-card hand.

Pai Gow Poker

Pai Gow is an ancient Chinese game originally played with tiles. More recently it has been modified to create a card game with some resemblance to hi-lo poker.

Poker Dice

This is a dice game that offers an alternative and abbreviated form of poker.  It uses 5 dice that carry, instead of the numbers one to six, symbols of the Ace, King, Queen, Jack and Ten.

Poker Three

This is a simple card game loosely based on poker. It combines two games known respectively as “pair plus” and “ante and play and a player may bet on either or both of the two games during play.

Pontoon

A popular British card game that is almost identical to Blackjack.

Punto Banco

Punto Banco is a card game that is very closely related to Baccarat. Punto means player and Banco means bank. Together, they describe the two principal bets that comprise this game.

Red Dog Poker

This card game is only loosely related to poker, being far more like Blackjack, in fact. The game is played against a dealer and at a table not unlike that used in Blackjack.

Roulette

The game is played by dropping a small ball on to a spinning wheel divided into numbered segments. Players musty predict in which segment the ball will come to rest.

Rummy

A card game in which players compete to be the first to disburse all of the cards in their hand by forming groups of matching or consecutive cards known as “melds”.

Spanish 21

This is another card games based upon Blackjack. It uses a “stripped” pack from which all of the tens have been removed, making it more difficult to achieve a total of twenty-one with just two cards.